Two recent studies have assessed a large quantity of worked whale-bone recovered from Anglo-Saxon contexts in Southampton (Hamwic), Ipswich, and Flixborough, finding that each site may have employed different strategies for obtaining cetacean remains. Whether whales were actively hunted or…
• Dark satanic mills: tracing the lives of 19th-century pauper apprentices
• Ballynahatty: reconstructing a rare Neolithic timber monument
• The South Downs from above: human history from the Neolithic to the Cold War
• Exploring local life before and after Hadrian’s Wall
• The Connington teenager: being ‘different’ in Anglo-Saxon England
With Marc DeSantis
Between 1943 and 1944, reconnaissance units from the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) trained for combat deployment over the skies of England. They flew over airfields, radar installations, and ancient monuments, as well as major settlements, in order to…
A recent survey project has analysed almost 10,000 aerial photographs as well as LiDAR imagery to explore archaeological features preserved within a large swathe of the South Downs National Park. From monuments to military remains, both well-known sites and new discoveries have been brought to light, as Carly Hilts reports.
Plans for a new, more sustainable garden within the ruins of Scotney Castle in Kent have given archaeologists the rare opportunity to explore the medieval mansion’s buried remains. Carly Hilts visited Nat Cohen on site to find out more.
This is a medieval seal matrix found by a metal-detectorist in the parish of Lockerley, Hampshire. It is made of cast copper-alloy and most likely dates to between 1470 and 1520. Measuring a diminutive 6cm by 4cm, it is a…
REVIEW BY ANDREW TIBBS The Road is a personal journey by the author to experience Roman roads and how they impacted the lives of those around them, and the surrounding landscape, not just 2,000 years ago, but in more recent…
There are many great ways to get involved with archaeology and heritage this summer, including new exhibitions, events, activities, and more. Or, if you would prefer to get your history fix at home, there is a wide variety of resources available online, from new apps and digital exhibitions to virtual heritage site tours, podcasts, games, and more. Amy Brunskill has put together a selection of some of the options available.
Euston cemetery burials reinterred in Surrey At the end of June, more than 14,000 burials that had been excavated from St James’s Gardens in Euston in advance of HS2 (see CA 398) were reburied at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. Prayers…
This is a unique early Bronze Age pin, made from the first phalanx (or toe-bone) of a golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). It is the only example ever found in a Bronze Age funerary context in England, with only one other…
Excavations at Manor Farm in Frindsbury, Kent – in advance of the construction of a Maritime Academy – have revealed more than 800 stone artefacts found within sediments thought to relate to a Middle Pleistocene tributary of the River Medway.…
Strontium isotope analysis has become a standard in mobility research, featuring in many post-excavation analyses of human and animal remains. While ‘typical’ strontium analysis is able to tell us much about movement in the past, new techniques are being applied…
The release of the latest Indiana Jones film presents an opportunity to reflect on how archaeology has been depicted in the franchise. Hélène Maloigne investigates the realities of archaeological fieldwork in the eras spanned by the movies.
REVIEW BY GRAHAM GOODLAD The 80th anniversary of the Dambusters raid in May received a certain amount of media attention and several new books on the event will have appeared by the end of this year. Yet Barnes Wallis, whose…
This unusual stone tool was recently discovered in a back garden in Hastings, East Sussex. It is a Neolithic polished flint chisel, or possibly axehead, that appears to have been reworked into a cutting or scraping tool. The flint is…
A large piece of oak, found in Boxford, Berkshire in 2019 and dated to the late Mesolithic period, has been identified as the oldest decoratively carved wood currently known from Britain. The wood was discovered in a layer of peat…
• Surprises from the Roman frontier: investigating a new turret on Hadrian’s Wall
• Archaeology for all: can social value save archaeology from extinction?
• Seeking seclusion: tracing medieval hermits in Britain and Ireland
• Excavations and attractions: celebrating half a century of the York Archaeological Trust
In June 2017, contractors digging an electricity service trench, just inland from Longis Bay in Alderney, began to find human bones. Archaeologists from Guernsey quickly flew up to investigate, and so began six (COVID-19-interrupted) years of research into the biggest, and best-preserved, Iron Age and Gallo-Roman site in the Channel Islands. With another excavation just concluded, this seemed a good opportunity to summarise the results so far, as Philip de Jersey reports.
Stereoscopy is as old as photography itself. The techniques for tricking the suggestible brain into seeing three dimensions by placing two overlapping images side by side was first described in 1838 in a Royal Society paper ‘on some remarkable, and…
editor Carly asked me to delve into the archives for a bumper edition of my column, in order to tell the story of archaeology in the UK across the lifespan of the magazine
REVIEW BY JOE FLATMAN Grounded is a book that will divide opinion. Rarely as a reviewer have I read something that I was so unsure about at the end. It is a highly personal travelogue through the archaeology of south…
Andrew Selkirk, Current Archaeology’s founder and Editor-in-chief, marks the magazine’s latest milestone, and looks to the future.
The funding will enable the conservation charity to upgrade and expand scientific and archaeological research on its historic sites and collections.
'Their stories are still being written – and they won’t be complete until you share your side.'
A look at some of the best military history events and exhibitions to check out.
REVIEW BY COLIN POMEROY With The Women Behind the Few, Sarah-Louise Miller has produced a truly excellent book telling the story of women in multiple roles during the Second World War. The book actually begins with the Great War, with…
Richborough in Kent was one of the key locations in the early stages of the Roman invasion of Britain, later flourishing into a wealthy port town and then a significant military site. Over the last century, excavations have provided an extraordinary array of insights into the experiences of people who lived and worked within its walls – now, following a transformation of the on-site museum and the presentation of the outdoor archaeology, what new stories are there to tell? Carly Hilts visited to find out more.
Review by Emily A Freeman The term ‘Treasure’ is complicated and has a variety of connotations for those inside and outside the heritage sector. This book of collected papers explores the legal and cultural attitudes towards ‘Treasure’, with many of the…
The mosaic will now be carefully preserved in situ with the whole excavated surface re-covered using materials that will protect the tiles from any wear or damage in the future.
Review by Trevor Creighton This book is, in part, an update of D W Harding’s 2009 publication, The Iron Age Roundhouse. Significant new insights from the author justify the updated title, however. The chronology now extends from the later Neolithic…
A round-up of some of the latest archaeology news from around the UK.
The word 'perfume' is derived from the Latin for what?
For half a century, AromaPrime has been creating historically accurate scents for museum exhibits and heritage attractions. Carly Hilts spoke to Heritage Scenting Consultant Liam R Findlay to learn more about how smells can help to conjure up the distant past.
These same people would not hesitate to wear a scarab-ring taken off a dead man’s hand… Their objections – their opinions even – are an offence to science.
Review by Rosalind Love The engagingly lyrical writing of Eleanor Parker has gained many admirers through her website ‘A Clerk of Oxford’, which gently introduced readers to the rich literature, folklore, and religion of early medieval England. Her latest book…